


Storm The Castle

by dance_tilyouredead



Series: Clexa Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:39:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3891529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dance_tilyouredead/pseuds/dance_tilyouredead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>tumblr Prompt-what would have happened if Clarke is the one who took the deal instead of lexa.</p><p>*</p><p>"Lexa told her to think with her head not her heart. Clarke can already feel the pieces of her heart being torn away and burned by cool logic. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Clarke has the last man on his knees. The door is clear but Miller is on the ground clutching at his insides to keep them near his body. Monroe is standing next to her, one arm hanging broken and useless by her side, gun too heavy to lift one handed. Clarke knows more are dead behind her but she can't bear to look. And she’s being offered a deal. Her people for a retreat from the mountain. 

’The grounders?’ She asks.

’Remain.’ Emerson has that smirk despite the ropes on his hands and the gun that she holds to his fellow-soldier’s head. The smirk where he knows he’a won. Walking around with the blood of her people in his veins. Who's bones did he have to crack open for the privilege of open air?

Clarke looks down into the light of Lexa’s army. Lexa herself is hidden from view but Clarke spent enough time watching the commander to know her face, to know how she would respond to this deal. She has more at stake than Clarke does; hundreds of people inside the mountain and generations of grounders who would no longer be hunted. 

Lexa told her to think with her head not her heart. And Clarke can already feel the pieces of her heart being torn away and burned by cool logic. She can save her people.

’I’ll take your deal.’ Monroe looks at her sharply but Clarke continues, words a hard growl. ’You bring my people out now and we walk away.’

’Emerson nods. Done.’

Clarke grits her teeth. the man at her feet moves to stand up but she pulls the trigger and puts a bullet in his head. She wonders what that shot might sound like to Lexa on the ground, if she’ll think that bullet is shattering Clarke’s skull instead. If Lexa would mourn her. She mourns so many. 

 

They come into view of the door and Lexa comes out of hiding, a look of burning pride as she smiles at Clarke. ’Now we storm the castle?’ Lexa asks with the phrase Clarke had used. It’s sweet to think how they’ve affected each other in so short a time. Lexa looks at Emerson coming up behind her, at his smirk and then back at Clarke. Her expression shifts in such subtle ways but Clarke can read every change as she starts to suspect and then understands. When Clarke draws a knife(one Lexa gave her) and cuts the Mountain Man loose the last glimmer of hope slips from her gaze. ’You made a choice,’ Lexa says, still proud somehow of Clarke.

’The one you would have made.’

Lexa nods because yes she would have. 

Emmerson approaches the opening door and helps the first limping Skai Kru through. The younger Miller emerges next with Harper. The worst of the wounded are supported out and are still coming through. There’s sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.

Clarke looks to Lexa, hoping she has as good a read on her expressions as she does of hers. They exchange a confirmation of sorts. The hand on Lexa’s sword tightens and that’s all she needs.

Clarke looks back to the door as half her people have emerged while the other half keep stumbling through, freedom so close. Many will die, Clarke knows, but this was the plan. This is why she let TonDC burn. Not for 45 sky people or the hundred grounders inside the mountain. But for the freedom, the chance that all people could live and love and die without fear of being hunted, drained and disposed of.

’Jus Drein Jus Daun,’ Clarke murmurs and Lexa repeats after her. Monroe repeats the same as do all the Warriors close to them. Quiet, spreading and increasing in volume with each repetition. ’Jus Drein Jus Daun.’ 

Emmerson looks up too late as Clarke has her gun raised. ’Jus drein jus daun.’ She pulls the trigger, the door remains open and an army storms the castle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hadn't planned on writing another chapter for this but you guys are rad, so. I hope this works with the first chapter.

Clarke ducks and shoots and keeps up as best as she can. A bullet finds her shoulder and she kills the man before he can fire another one. The mountain wants to swallow them whole but they're determined to choke her first. At the head of the charge, Lexa is beautiful, terrifying and lethal. Clarke only gets to watch her for a few seconds before they separate at the first intersecting hallway but she sees enough to leave her shaken. Lexa is the brutal warrior that Clarke could never be. She’s swift and unflinching, her whole body a weapon, a sword the natural extension of her reach. There’s not a soldier that could survive against her. Proof of that litters the hallways behind them as Lexa with her people and a dozen of Clarke’s run off to find a way into level five.

  
On a lower floors Clarke finds the team from the tunnels, just barely keeping her head as Octavia swings her blade but manages to pull back just shy of her neck They smile and pull each other close for a moment, anger and bitterness lost in blood and adrenalin. When Clarke pulls back she sees fresh blood on Octavia’s cheek. It takes her a moment to realise the smudge of wet blood came from herself, that her face and arms are covered in a sheen of gore.

Monty Bellamy and Jasper are with them along with Maya in a hazmat suit. They’ve brought another three tanks of air, enough to last out the battle and then some. ’Go hide,’ Clarke tells her and Maya looks too exhausted to be relieved. Jasper refuses Bellamy’s help, bringing his loaded rifle to his chest and leaving with Maya to get far away from Cage and from the fighting.

Clarke moves with Octavia, guiding Indra’s team upwards, cutting down any soldiers they meet. They’re tense. Every corner feels like a trap but up two levels they need to separate.

‘What now?’ Octavia asks.

Clarke doesn’t know. She wished she knew where anyone else was. ‘Dante,’ she starts and Bellamy tells her he’s in containment. ‘Good, I need him. You need to go find Cage.’

‘And kill him?’ Bellamy looks like he’s had enough of killing.

‘If he refuses to cooperate, yes.’

‘I’m in,’ Octavia hasn’t put away her blade the whole time and she moves like a warrior. Bellamy goes with her and the other grounders.

‘Here’s hoping Lexa found a way into level five that doesn’t involve killing everyone.’ Clarke follows Monty’s lead toward the control room, collecting Dante on the way with her gun hard under his chin.

  
They find Lexa with five others outside the control room trying to break inside.

‘Level 5?’

Lexa shakes her head. ‘Not without killing everyone. I thought you would come here. But most of my people are still waiting outside their gates and guarding the exits.’

Monty is already at the key pad to open the battered control room door. The door swings open and a grounder announces the room clear. Monty moves through, sits at the control panel and pulls up all the hallway monitors. Every floor other than 5 appears clear so Monty pulls up Level five on all the largest screens. ‘What the?’

‘How? Lexa growls. There are dozens of her warriors held against the wall with guns at their back. Indra and octavia are among them.

‘They got the drop on them,’ Clarke shakes her head in disbelief. ‘That’s more soldiers and more guns than I’ve seen. They must have pulled all the guards back to level five when we took the door.’

Lexa barks more order to her warriors and they leave the room to guard the hallway. Lexa grabs Dante by the back of his shirt and presses the point of her blade into his throat.

‘Clarke,’ Monty pulls up the feed from a dark room filled with medical equipment, tables, and dozens of people tied to the wall. People who didn’t make it through the door but also people from the ark.

Clarke rushes into Dante’s space. ’Give the order to let my people go.’ Clarke’s voice is not strong enough but it don’t matter with Lexa’s knife drawing blood from his neck.

Dante is unmoved. ’If I do that, my people will die.’

‘Is that?’ Monty’s voice draws Clarke’s attention back to the monitor to see more figures being dragged into frame. Kane and Monroe, and Abbey are forced to kneel at Dante Wallace’s feet.

  
Clarke feels rage boil inside her. Heat and terror direct her motions until she has Cage on the radio, her gun pointed at Dante’s chest and Lexa at her side. Cage tells her she won’t do it. ‘You don’t know me very well,’ Clarke tells him and she knows it’s true because none of them know what she is capable of. She tries to reason with him to threaten him but on the monitor she can see Abbey is dragged to the table. ‘Don’t make me do this,’ Clarke pleads. They can see Cage yell an order. He calms, holds up the radio and tells his father goodbye.

Dante is afraid. ’None of us has a choice here, Clarke.’

’I didn’t want this.’ She won’t cry.

‘Niether did I.’

She pulls the trigger and an old man’s heart bleeds as his son understands the consequences. Her eyes are hot with tears but she can feel Lexa’s gaze and she hold herself steady. She presses the radio receiver again. ‘Cage, listen to me. No one else has to die.’ Her voice is stronger now as Lexa checks Dante’s pulse and confirm’s he’s dead.

Cage isn’t listening. He’s barking more orders and then personally tightens the straps on Abbey’s wrists and ankles. He ties her to the table covered in her children’s blood.

Clarke’s fingers tighten around the radio. ‘Listen to me Cage. We will not stop coming after you. Blood must have blood. That’s what we say on the ground.’ Clarke ignores the way Lexa looks up at her. She hasn’t the focus to read her expression. ‘If you don’t let our people go. I will irradiate level five.’ There’s a motion on the hallway monitors and Clarke hopes it’s the lab but instead she sees men in hazmat suits coming their way. ’Monty?’ Clarke begs for a chance. ‘Can you do it?’

‘I can.’

Lexa turns, shouts more orders to her warriors before turning back to Clarke. ‘They will not get through.’ The monitor shows Dante picking up a drill, shows Abbey secured, unable to fight anymore.

Clarke slams her fist on the desk. ’Tell me you’ve figured it out,’

Monty’s hands stop against the keyboard. ’It’s done. Scrubbers will reverse and then the level fills with air from outside.’ Monty pushes his chair back and away from the desk as if to divorce himself of this burden. ‘You just have to pull that lever.’

Lexa looks between Monty and the lever, touching the top of it with light fingertips. She looks back to Clarke. ‘You said there were children.’ She wants to make sure that Clarke remembers what she’d wanted. How she’d hoped the innocent would survive.

Clarke understands. But her mom is on the table and Dante is standing over her. Raven is already bleeding and slumped against the wall with more people that she loves either side of her.

Gunshots echo in the hall outside. ‘Clarke, we’re out of time,’ Monty closes the door and locks it.

Clarke feels trapped and overwhelmed, her hands are shaking. Her people will die and she doesn’t know what to do.

‘Clarke.’ Lexa’s voice brings her back from the edge of despair. ’I need your soul to stay where it is,’ she says gazing at her like she can see through to Clarke's bones. She steps aside so Clarke can stand with her at the console. ‘You are strong.’ She grips Clarke's Clarke's hand. ’The decision must be made now. We pull the lever or we find another way.’

Clarke stares into Lexa’s eyes, feels the warmth of her hand even through the gloves and numbing adrenalin. A month of debate might be enough time to make this decision rationally. But she doesn't have that time. She has this instant, she has Lexa, and together they have the power to murder every person native to the mountain in seconds. Her mother’s screams crackle through the radio along with the whining of drills and she knows that it’s a message from Cage.

'There's another way to save them?’ Clarke asks, heart catching on Lexa’s last words.

'We have them surrounded. I believe some of our people can be saved. But not all. ’

It's reassuring in a sense, for Clarke to know she has a choice. A sense of autonomy regardless of Cage. Regardless of her mother’s screams, of Raven still in view hanging limp on the wall, of Octavia and Monroe held in another unknown space with guns to their heads.

Clarke shivers, feeling anything but strong. ’You said once that emotion gets in the way of strength.’ She stands next to Lexa in front of the lever, but points to the monitor. ‘My Mom is on that table. How can these emotions not make me weak?’

Lexa’s fingers squeeze hers and then release, her palm remaining warm against the back of Clarke’s hand. ’Maybe two strong hearts together can make the right choice.’

Lexa’s breathing is calm and steady and Clarke tries her best to match it. Her heart and mind races but she only knows one thing. ‘I have to save them.’ She hears the heartbreak in her own voice as she reaches for the lever but Lexa’s hand goes with hers and she meets her eyes calmly. Clarke can see the forest in those eyes; the world outside. Lexa is calm and steady, and Clarke only has to nod once.

With blood already thick on their hands they pull the lever down, and everyone dies.


End file.
